Alexandria

I have been a firm fan of historical detective stories since I first read Ellis Peter's A Morbid Taste for Bones thirty years ago and of all the many excellent writers who have followed since Lindsey Davis is one of the best. Her Roman sleuth Marcus Didius Falco is an engaging and resourcful character and over the course of her nineteen books she has introduced us to his aristocratic wife Helena and the rest of his familly which provides background and depth to the stories. Her latest, Alexandria, is well up to her very high standard. Falco has taken his familly on a well earned holiday to Egypt to see the Pyramids, the Sphinx and all the rest of the tourist sites that all well-bred Romans should visit. Falco is offered accomodation by his uncle Fulvius who with his boyfriend Cassius are businessmen of a decidedly dodgy stripe. When his reprobate father, a pillar of the fake antiques trade, turns up Falco suspects the worst. However, thoughts of familly problems are thrust aside when the Prefect of Alexandria asks him to investigate the murder, in a locked room no less, of Theron the Chief of the Library. The investigation leads him into devious plots and quite a lot of personal danger. Could members of his own familly be involved in nefarious activities? Perish the thought! Falco not only solves the crime and saves the Library but manages to take the fair Helena to see the Pyramids. As we say in these intellectual realms this is a bostin' good book.